MOVIE REVIEW: Emotions soar in final animated film

EXPECT to get all the feels when you go to see How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

The third and final film in Universal Pictures' action and adventure trilogy carries more emotional gravitas than you might expect. Not since Toy Story 3 has the ending of an animated film made me so teary.

The final instalment opens with Hiccup now the chief and ruler of Berk alongside his girlfriend Astrid. The young Viking couple has turned their cliff-top village into a dragon utopia, where humans and fire-breathers live alongside one another in harmony.

Hiccup in a scene from the movie How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Supplied

It's a colourful and chaotic existence as Hiccup and his band of troops carry out covert missions to rescue and adopt more and more dragons.

While this suits the community of dragon-hunters-turned-riders just fine, it also makes them a target for those who still see dragons as dangerous beasts that need to be either subdued or killed.

Hiccup draws the ire of dragon hunter Grimmel, who has dedicated his life to killing every single Night Fury - the rarest of all dragon breeds.

Hiccup's companion Toothless is the only known surviving male of his species and the devious Grimmel - a formidable foe who relishes the hunt - introduces a potential mate, a Light Fury, to draw a wedge between dragon and rider.

A scene from the movie How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Supplied by Universal Pictures.

The only way to save his beloved dragons, once and for all, is to find their ancestral home - a mythical hidden world out of the reach of man.

For anyone who has lost a loved one or watched their children grow up and leave home will relate to Hiccup as he struggles with the idea of saying goodbye to Toothless.

This is also the conclusion of Hiccup's own coming-of-age story as he grapples with self-doubt and tries to figure out what kind of leader he wants to be.

There are still plenty of funny moments too, particularly Toothless's hopeless attempts at flirting with the dazzling Light Fury.

The quality of the animation in this final instalment is breathtaking and well worth seeing on the big screen.

Astrid (voiced by America Ferrera) and Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) in a scene from the movie How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Supplied by Universal Pictures.